TOUGH STANDS ON RIGHTS WELCOME

BLUNT CRITICISM of human rights violations in Chile is one more encouraging development in the Reagan Administration's more aggressive reaction to repression.

When behind-the-scenes diplomatic pressures failed to effect reforms in the military government of President Augusto Pinochet, the administration, which had previously abstained or voted against anti-Chilean motions, went public.

State Department officials are calling for support in the United Nations for a U.S. resolution that condemns Chile for the "persistence of serious violations of human rights." Those abuses, by a junta that has been in power since 1973, include continuing reports of kidnappings and torture by security forces.

The action, coming soon after U.S. contributions to the exile flights of Haiti's president-for-life, Jean Claude Duvalier, and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, is another indication the administration has recognized a global fact of life -- that cruelty toward all political opposition in the name of anti-communism only widens the appeal of communist agitators.

While Marcos may officially be a guest in the U.S., the government is continuing its efforts to unravel his extensive holdings and return whatever is recoverable to the Philippines.

Treasury secretary James A. Baker III has told the House Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs that copies of some 1,500 financial documents found among the trunks of money, securities, jewelry and personal effects Marcos brought to Hawaii will be turned over to the new government headed by Corazon Aquino.

Those papers, along with records found in the Philippines and information supplied by former Marcos associates, could do much to document the large- scale fraud that enabled Marcos and his wife, Imelda, to amass a fortune estimated at as much as $10 billion.

Aggressive U.S. efforts to call attention to repression in Chile and to force an accounting of Marcos' ill-gotten wealth are welcome changes in the Reagan administration's approach to blatant violations of human rights.